


Painted Roses

by Esmeraude11, TheFreakWithTheWings



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Angel!Erskine, Changeling!Maria Stark, Drabbles, MagicMan!Tony, Multi, White Court!Darcy, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 79
Words: 11,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmeraude11/pseuds/Esmeraude11, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles and headcanons about Marvel characters as they relate to the universe of the Dresden Files.</p><p>Updated daily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Maria Stark

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles have basically been copied right out of our conversations. Enjoy!

Maybe Maria's mother, an English woman who'd followed her Yankee soldier and left her native Yorkshire for his America after the Great War, prayed to God for half her life for a healthy living child and finally given in and on her knees before a small saucer of honey and sweet berries begged the fae to deliver her a child and was rewarded with a little girl whose eyes were the clear bright blue of the River Humber from her childhood, had run afoul of the fae. Maybe she reneged on a debt owed or attempted to steal her daughter, her beautiful blue eyed river child, from the fae, from magic. Maria with hair the glossy black of river stones.


	2. Maria Stark

Though not royalty Maria would be expected to invite both Winter and Summer to the birth of her child as is traditional and given her place in the realm of the fae. Where both Queens would probably give him gifts in celebration. Of course fairy presents are as much politics as anything else so the two would attempt to one up each other subtly and not so subtly.


	3. Steve Rogers

Steve, who grew up in 30s Brooklyn which was an Irish borough at the time, probably grew up learning the stories and tales of the Fair Folk at his grandmother's knee while his mother worked in the hospitals of New York. He was told to respect them and their kind but to never trust them, for though they told no lies it didn't mean that they wouldn't steal him from his path with half truths. His largely dormant magic and offerings from his grandmother to the Fae probably kept him alive if not healthy. Plus his good heart, pure soul, and faith had power of their own as well. Power that neither Tony nor Howard would believe in, being men of science, of logic, and ultimately of Cold Iron and Hot Steel. Though how much Tony actually believes in no one is completely sure.


	4. Bucky Barnes

In Bucky's case maybe magic attracts magic, and that's why he helped the stubborn little runt in a dark alleyway surrounded by juvenile thugs, and while attempting to help a little boy from getting beat up got beaten himself. There was something safe about Steve, something almost warm, which told him that this was a kid who could be a very good friend indeed.


	5. Johann Schmidt

As for the Red Skull, maybe the serum is magic in its own way, and that's why no one's ever been able to recreate it. Magic meant to enhance. Magic twisted and turned this way and that until made into sparkling impossible liquid. Magic which can turn a pure man into an even greater one and likewise transform an ugly minded person into a terror and a monster. Magic that is pure intent and responds thusly.


	6. Dr. Erskine

Maybe Erskine was actually an agent of Uriel, pretending to be human in order to orchestrate the beginning of the age of superheroes. He didn't expect to find losing his human life to be so painful. But ohh he was so proud of Steven Rogers (Not Captain America), that young scrappy boy from Brooklyn who'd vowed to fight the good fight against all the bullies of the world.


	7. Peggy Carter

Peggy Carter's family had always been involved in the intelligence business. When it became clear that the Archive was to go to her older sister, and that she didn't have a lick of actual magic, she decided to go into the human side of intelligence, where it was always a challenge to figure out what was going on, but at least no one there was going to kidnap her to use her against her older sister.


	8. Edwin Jarvis

And maybe Edwin Jarvis never complained about Peggy leading the investigation was because he had learned at his mothers knee that to be a woman was not the same thing as being lesser or weaker, and sometimes he can tell when someone is about to die, but because he is only half Valkyrie it is weaker, and he actually feels the urge to help them stay alive rather than guide them to Valhalla.


	9. Tony Stark

And even Tony has some form of magic, but a mutated form, because magic evolves too, and his magic doesn't affect technology, it affects computer codes, and so all of his magic gets channeled into his engineering, making him the world's first technomancer. And whenever he works with computer code it mutates because of his magic, doing his bidding without him even realizing it, becoming alive, and he doesn't even realize that its magic, his way with technology, because he was raised by a man of science. And most of it is his own genius, because he was smart enough to change the way his magic worked, to channel it through scientific ways, but he has ways with technology that no one has been able to emulate. And JARVIS and the rest of the bots are alive in truth, spirits of intellect that he accidentally created, but they have no need to fear the sun because their creator, their father, gave them their own fully functional bodies. And no one may ever realize that he has magic because everyone knows that technomancy can't exist because of the way that technology interacts with magic, but that's okay. Tony doesn't even like magic anyways.


	10. Dr. Erskine

He didn't expect to find losing his human life to be so painful. But ohh he was so proud of Steve(Not Captain America). That young scrappy boy from Brooklyn who'd vowed to fight the good fight against all the bullies of the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how late this one was my power went out after last night's big storm and we only just got it back.


	11. Howard Stark

Howard always knew that there was something strange about his friends even if he didn't know what. Maria with her bright glittering smile. Peggy whose determination to succeed was single-minded. Jarvis who was always willing to offer sage advise and a warm cup of tea that could solve any problem. Steve who was heartfelt and sincere, whose smile was like the sun even if he himself was akin to the earth. They were people who would make mountains move if they had to, even if they never would.


	12. Peggy Carter

She may not have had magic but she did have contacts. Little friends made as a child filled with wonder and love for that which would always be hers even if she couldn't affect the world in the way that her brother and sister could.( It's why she was ever so pleased when her little girl made friends with the little fae even as her son made fire dance in the air.) Her family would be relieved to finally have an agent in the mundane field of intelligence. And though she had no magic of her own, she was magic still. And she swore the oath her father had, the oath that her mother swore when she married Harrison Carter, the oath her brother swore and that her children would swear, even little Sharon Carter would swear to Queen and Country above SHIELD for the family served above else the Royal Family. From William of Normandy to Elizabeth the Second of the United Kingdom they had served and they would continue to serve. (Duty was as much a part of them as magic was their blood)


	13. Edwin Jarvis

It's why he so very fondly stood at young Tony's side. When that boy was hurting. Denying his love for forgetful, forgetful Howard and cheerful, smiling Maria. Denying Magic and happiness. Edwin Jarvis made a promise(swore an oath of magic to a solemn Maria). A simple promise but a promise nevertheless that he would watch over young Master Stark for as long as he could, for as long as the young master would have him. Keeping him safe and alive if not happy.


	14. Tony Stark

But that's not true(he loved magic once upon a time). For he can remember so very clearly sitting at his mother's knee. Watching her play and tend to her plants. Listening to her sing songs of the fae, of magic, old songs talking of even older subjects. He can remember little sparkling balls of light(the Wyldfae) dancing around her and fluttering in out of her flowers. His mother who seemed to glow. Who was always happiest next to her little creek, with its cheerful gurgling water and its little fishes flashing silver in the clear, clear water. It's why when she died he buried her next to her creek within her happy field of flowers. It's why he can't make himself go back. Can't stand to shatter his happy, fragile memories of flowers, wonder and magic. Because of course the magic is gone(it never existed). She was the one who was magic, not he.


	15. Tony Stark

He can't see his own Technomancy as magic. Magic in his eyes is glittering water and sweet aromatic flowers. Gentle laughter and honeyed songs. Songs that could shape the earth, that could tell a story. (It's actually why he created holograms he was trying to recreate his mother's ability to warp light to create pictures with her music)


	16. Tony Stark

Who says Maria died? After all, those we love only truly die if they are forgotten, and Tony may not have been able to create the magic like his mother did, but he set up a Foundation in her name, a way to help people like his mom helped him, even though it was easier to pretend that he didn't care, that he didn't crawl even further into the bottle aftervshe was gone. And even though he hated magic because it did nothing to save her, if he ever found a child who showed signs of magic he would use his contacts in the Venatori Umbrorum to help them. Because he may have cut most of his ties with the magic world after his mother died, but he is Tony F*** Stark, and only the very very brave or the very very foolish go against him.


	17. Tony Stark

And she didn't die. Not truly. For her creek is still there and so are the flowers with their soft sweet scents and the gentle buzzing of the bees. Honeysuckle twining about the trellis that she'd placed off to the side and sweet little hummingbirds flitting about them sticking long and slender beaks into the flowers for their nectar. Roses dotting the clearing like brave and bold guardsmen guarding the glade. Roses that a 5 year old Tony had helped plant. He hurt himself with their small, sharp thorns and as he cried his mother came and comforted him with stories about red and white Rose Guards protecting a beautiful kingdom of sweet birds and mischievous squirrels with a brave and strong Prince who was the handsomest (and smartest) in all the land and would go on to change his kingdom for the better.(Tony knew that it was a childish story better meant for girls but it helped. It made him feel better. Still does in fact.)


	18. Tony Stark

And sometimes, sometimes he comes across a little girl with big blue eyes or a sweet girl with thick black hair and he thinks of his mother. He thinks of her and remembers magic and flowers and honeysuckle. And he brushes a hand through her hair and eyes her mother or her father and he hands them a card. Tells them that there are people who can help them. That no, their beautiful little girl isn't a mutant(she's not a freak, not a demon) she's magic. Magical and beautiful and wonderful and she'll go everywhere in life but they just need to call the number on the card and everything will be alright. (Because Tony sympathizes so damn much with the mutants but it's not his fight to fight, it's theirs.)


	19. Harley Keener

And then there's little Harley Keener, that sassy little kid who was there for Tony. Cause, usually, its the other way around, he's there to help the kids work through their demons, and they will disappear into his mother's world and be all the better for it. Harley, on the other hand, is completely normal, as much as anyone too smart for their own good can ever be normal. Because he sees nothing wrong with facing intruders armed with a potato gun. And even though Tony is worried about Pepper and Extremis and Rhodey and the Mandarin, he still finds time to drop off another potato gun with the kid. And if he goes a little overboard with the other equipment, well, who's gonna know? Besides Pepper, because Pepper is competent and smart and beautiful and will rule the world someday. Tony still believes that she's too good for him, and he thanks any god that's listening (except Loki, cause that asshole threw him out of a window, and that's just not cool) that she chooses to stay with him, and what would he do without her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there are multiple people in this one but I just put Harley for the title. Sorry about the lateness forgot to upload had to go on errands and then fell asleep for a few and lost my power for a bit as well today.


	20. Pepper Potts

Pepper already rules the world. The Avengers are her court with Tony the court jester and Rhodey the only sane man out of the bunch. She knows about his insecurities and understands that no matter how much he pushes her away that he loves her. He just doesn't know how to talk to someone that isn't one of his bots. And Tony, Tony is afraid to have children. Afraid that he'll be like his father (forgetful, forgetful) and knows that he'll never be as good as his mother. And really that's why he fell in love with Pepper because Pep isn't ready for children(why would she want children when she has Tony and Rhodey and Happy and now the rest of the Avengers, they're all children.), she's still living her life and is too busy being a kick-ass CEO to be able to devote her time to little Tony's. (The very thought gives her nightmares sometimes. Miniature Tony's running around Stark Towe uncontrolled and uncontrollable.)


	21. James Rhodes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kinda long but I took stuff away and added more to it and it kinda balloned away from it's original length.

As for Rhodey his mother came from the bayou of Louisiana, a woman of French and African American heritage. She taught him French, Creole and all about Hoodoo and when he was young and curious told him to stay away from Voodoo, that that stuff wasn't for her baby bird. (Though Mama taught Elise.) Mama Rhodes always seemed to know what was in her son's future. From the time Rhodey got drunk on a night out with some friends and had to be picked up by an unamused and cursing Mama in nightwear. But to this day he was thankful that she hadn't told Papa what had happened. To the day that he killed a bird with a sling shot. Mama was real angry that day. A quiet sort of angry and she had taken him to task over that little bird asked him if he'd intended to eat it. When he'd said no told her it was only a bird she'd grown even quieter and she asked him "Then why'd ya kill it? How do you not know that that wasn't a mama bird looking for food for her babies? You killed her because she was there and thought it was fun but now her babies are going to go hungry this year because you killed their mama. Every creature's got the right to live their life. The good Lord said it right James, He gave Man dominion over the birds, the fish and all the animals that walked on this good and solid earth but He didn't give us this power to abuse it we are the masters of the animals but we are also their caretakers. We need to look out for them because they are our brothers and sisters and they feed us, clothe us and in times of trouble can guide us on our way. You don't go around killing for fun or just because. You gotta have a reason. And a good enough reason to stand up to Saint Peter's watching eyes." 

When he joined the military Mama didn't protest she only asked "You gotta reason?" eyebrow raised and hip cocked and Rhodey simply smiled looking at her, at Papa, at Elise with baby Johnny. And thought of the sweet little song bird he had foolishly killed so many summers and moons ago and said "Yeah, I do." And Mama simply smiled.

When he had to leave for MIT she told him that he would meet a boy by the name of Tony Stark and was told to tell the man that his mama wouldn't have wanted him to be moping around. (He got slugged for that after he first met the bastard in a local bar. Later once Rhodey had acquiesced to his Mama's demands to bring Tony around home the smug and insufferable bastard bought him a new car utterly denying that it was in anyway supposed to make up for punching him. Only saying that he couldn't stand Rhodey's eyesore of a junker any longer.)/p>

Rhodey is well aware of the things that go bump in the night because Louisiana isn't a good place to live, cause if you're not prepared too many things will try to eat you. (Or steal your soul) And that's why Mama made sure that when she married John Rhodes that they would eventually be living somewhere else. She'd lost something once to a creature of the bayou and she never said what. Just turned haunted eyes and a grim mouth on him and told him quietly, solemnly that it wasn't right to bring that kind of talk into the house. Never knew what might be listening.


	22. Loki

And Loki, the arrogant little wretch really believed that there was no magic on Earth. He was lucky that both Summer and Winter were distracted during the Invasion of New York or they would have dealt with for trying to muscle in on their playground. The White Council was not pleased with the Invasion but they were relieved that everyone took it as an Alien Invasion rather than a Magical one. And Tony saw the Warden's wandering around Central Park, stealthy as a spy. And Tasha, Tasha saw them and she nodded because she'd worked with the Warden's before and had kept their secret from SHIELD. For they were fighting a war that SHIELD had no part in. (And they'd saved her life once, when she was a little girl lost in St. Petersburg. She was only repaying a debt.)


	23. Steve Rogers

And Steve can't understand how things are so different in the future. It wasn't the skyscrapers and the (very) short skirts or even the men kissing in front of Central Park that shocked him. But the bananas. The bananas are different. Plain and grainy, way too long, not sweet enough(They don't taste like bananas! What is Tony talking about?) and way too pulpy. Bananas are supposed to be creamy not pulpy. Steve has a small meltdown trying to comprehend the differences. (This is why Tony buys bananas from Thailand and Malaysia now.) And don't get him started on the apples either. (Tony still hasn't recovered from that particular episode.)


	24. Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson may not be an actual saint, but that's only because his mother raised ham as an athiest, like her mother did before her. That's not to say that he doesn't believe in magic, because Afghanistan was crawling with djinn (sometimes he thought about trapping one in order to bring Riley back, but he knew that Riley wouldn't want him to pay that price), and after Afghanistan sometimes cousin Sanya showed up out of the blue, needing to be patched up after his latest supernatural scuffle. Sometimes Sam wishes Sanya would take him with, but the veterans at the VA need him too much for him to go off to help his cousin. So when Captain America shows up, Sam is more than ready to help him. And later, when they are hunting down Bucky, Sam is the one who keeps Steve's hope up, because Sanya isn't the only one in his family who can inspire others to hope for something, anything. Although sometimes Sam hopes that Natasha and Sanya never meet, because those two together would be so terrifying.


	25. Jane Foster

Jane Foster isn't magic. She's normal and boring and very, very smart. As a little girl she didn't want to be a princess, she didn't play with (imaginary) fairies, nor did she look into her Mama's garden for gnomes and little elves. When she was six her Uncle Tommy gave her a rotating Solar System and from then on Jane's eyes were trained solely on the stars. Stars that glittered and shone. Stars that were gas and heat and energy. Stars that would never tell a lie. Stars that a little girl could talk to and know that they were listening even in the cold depths of space. She dreamt of Stars that glittered and shone and were kind and understanding to a little girl made outcast from her own peers do to her inquisitiveness, her drive and her vigor; visible even at such a tender age. Jane is stubborn and headstrong, oblivious at the best of times, and she's found that she can forget to eat at others. One time she didn't eat for almost three days straight because it was so interesting how the light from the stars seemed to be pulsing and refracting, strange energy patterns left behind on her sub-par tech issued to her by the University. This is where she began to think of the Einstein-Rosen bridge. Maybe the pulsing light and energy show had something to do with the theory. (Her partner at the time had to drag her away kicking and screaming when she arrived from her cram session and saw a messy dirty Jane alone with her telescope and her rather useless energy reader. After inhaling several kilos of food Jane crashed and slept for days with short intervals for bathroom and kitchen time. Afterwards she built Baby unwilling to return to her shoddy machine.) Jane still doesn't quite believe that Thor is a god or that Loki can do magic. After all any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it kinda obvious that I don't know my way around science as Jane does? Kinda butchered the science here. But oh well here's Jane.


	26. Maria Hill

Maria Hill had to learn how to be a Boss Ass Bitch from a very young age. Her adopted father - and no, she wasn't going to give you a name other than Grey either - taught her to honor the person who pays you, to honor your word, no matter what. She herself only had no shape-shifting abilities, or any magic at all, but that didn't matter. She learned how to lie, how to bluff, how to sneak, and how to beat a man senseless from her father. Her father's relatives disapproved, and their disapproval usually meant death, but he was the one who decided to keep the baby that someone gave him in return for his services, so they couldn't protest too much. She learned her morality from her father, and she also learned how difficult it was to stay moral. In the end, it wasn't as difficult to take down SHIELD as she thought it had been, because she also learned not to trust anyone from her father.


	27. Clint Barton

Clint was also a vanilla mortal, even though he had heard multiple times that his accuracy must be magic. SHIELD had been his wake-up call into the world of magic, although looking back he did wonder about some of the people at the circus. After Loki, he started actively seeking out people with magic, and that was when he learned about the Red Court and the Vampire War. He took an indefinite leave of absence from SHIELD and joined the Fellowship of St. Giles hunting down vampires, kitted out with protection spells he had commissioned from some guy in the phone book. Chicago was weird, but apparently the dude was legit. He may not have been able to fully take out his anger on Loki, but there were still beings who claimed to be gods who treated humans like shit, and so Clint was all for killing as many of them as possible.


	28. Maria Hill

Maria Hill may not have had the shape-shifting ability of her adopted family but she did absorb their animalistic grace. She grew up roughhousing with her shifter cousins. Her father taught her how to take down a man more than a dozen times her weight and strength. He showed her how to fight someone who was both stronger than her as well preternaturally gifted. and it was her adoptive mother who taught her to push her human senses to the limit, to get as much out of her human frailties as possible. And when she had to fight SHIELD it was her family she called for backup. Her cousins, aunts and uncles who answered the call and came. Leopards prowled the streets of New York, Lions snarled and gleefully played with the weak little humans that had sought to take Their Human from them. As Maria was theirs, no one else's. Eagles and Hawks soared through the skies taking out fighter jets with supernaturally strong wings and diamond like beaks.


	29. Clint Barton

Clint still isn't sure what to think about the White Court. Frankly they remind him of Tasha. Tasha who could be a sex demon if the mission calls for it. Tasha who can taunt and tease a man to the breaking point and before effortlessly killing him. Tasha who doesn't care about gender because the Red Room taught her to kiss and kill without a preference.


	30. Natasha Romanov

Maybe in another world, Natalia Romanova was found by Simon Pietrovich befire the Red Room and became his apprentice. She learned the Laws of Magic and took them to heart, and then found ways around them, killing with her own two hands instead of magic. When she discovered what the Red Room was doing to the young Russian girls, she utterly destroyed it, freeing the Winter Soldier in the process. She was made into a Warden after Archangel fell, barely escaping with her life, because the White Council technically couldn't accuse her of any crime, and they figured it was better to have her working for them instead of against them. The Winter Soldier went on to work for SHIELD, but because Romanova kept checking up on him Hydra was unable to sink its teeth into him. She eventually became the White Council's liason with SHIELD, and when Loki invaded she was able to call the full brunt of the Wardens onto the Chitauri, rescueing a SHIELD named Clint in the process. The White Council began investigating SHIELD after they launched a nuke on New York and found Hydra. They didn't even bother to go about cutting off its heads; Captain America and the Winter Soldier cut out its heart and burned it to the ground. The Aether was discovered by Jane Foster, but the Wardens were waiting for the dark elves by the time they decided to invade. It was still a difficult world, with its own times of sorrow, but it was a better one.


	31. Natasha Romanov

Unfortunately, the Red Room got to Natalia before Pietrovich could even learn of her existence, and it twisted her enough that, by the time she hit puberty and her magic expressed itself, she was already a living weapon. Rathering than allowing her to command the elements, her magic channeled itself through every aspect of her body, slowing her aging, speeding her healing, allowjng her to perform feats that no regular human could ever hope to accomplish. The Red Room was never able to develop a super soldier serum; it just turned people, girls, into weapons. The more magic the girl had, the deadlier and less human she was. Natasha was the deadliest Black Widow to ever be created by the Red Room.


	32. Natasha Romanov

Sometimes, sometimes she allows herself to wonder over what if's, could have been's, and should have been's. She thinks of a family that remains faceless, voiceless, and ultimately lifeless in her memories. Dark thoughts swirl in her mind over her name. She knows that Natalia Romanova is her name, it feels right in a way that Natalie Rushman doesn't, in a way that even Natasha Romanoff feels empty. She thinks of a kindly matron who had paled when the dark clothed faceless men had introduced her. Paled at the sound of her name in a way that very few people have ever paled(she never allows them to). Her skin had gone starch white, she had looked like a piece of bone china that had been painted over with sickly faded colors. The men, she remembers introduced her as Romanova, sneers audible in their voices. They had told the matron to name her what she wished for the child no longer had a name to call her own save for any the matron gave her.


	33. Natasha Romanov

Of course then Clint comes in and he gently jerks her back to reality. And sends a soft understanding smile and murmurs Tasha allowing those faded sepia toned memories to fade into the background of her mind. Masked by countless horrors committed in the name of the Motherland (and later for HYDRA).


	34. Darcy Lewis

Darcy doesn't actually need the glasses. They work as a shield, with a minor glamour on them to hide the true color of her eyes and the paleness of her skin. It was a struggle everyday to resist the urge to feed on the people (because they were people, not kine like her family liked to believe) around her, but she knew that if she could just hold out long enough to find her One True Love then she would be free from her family's demons. Thomas had been the one to help her escape because she hadn't been blessed like Inari; there was no one readily available to love her when she learned the truth about her father. So she hid herself away behind sweaters and glasses, cranking up her music as loud as possible whenever she needed to resist her growing Hunger and hoped for someday.


	35. Darcy Lewis

Bruce is the one to first notice that there's something wrong with Jane's friend. He notices the paleness of her skin,notices the strain in her voice on her face whenever someone gets close to or brushes against her. Steve is the next to notice how Distant Darcy is from the rest of the team. He notices how she squirrels herself away and talks big and loud, smiling and diverting attention from her attempts to keep them at a distance. But it's Bucky who does something about it. Bucky who shoves his wrist in her face, who watches her with sharp eyes and as she recoils away from him he nods slowly to himself and murmurs softly to Natasha. Natasha who'd come up beside him, silent as a ghost, and she nods sharply and swiftly leaves phone pressed to her ear. Darcy thinks she might have heard something about a brothel or maybe it was a strip club.


	36. Darcy Lewis

Darcy is afraid of what Thor will think, what he'll do, cause after he first appeared she read what Norse legends you could find in the local libraries. And she'd listened to the stories he'd told. And she knows what the Asgardians think of monsters. Sometimes she thinks she might understand why Loki broke.


	37. Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson has despite everything never been normal. His face isn't beautiful, isn't akin to carved marble, cannot be described in the vein as Caravaggio's works as is the norm with certain species of fae. His body doesn't remind one of Michelangelo's David. There are no carved plains or curved valleys anywhere on his body. His arms and legs aren't reminiscent of tree trunks. He's physically normal, boring, human. But, But there has always been something more. something other about Philip Coulson. He's more than human, always has been. He's fae. A changeling child, like Maria Stark, but more physically human. Meant to infiltrate, meant to convince the people that no, there is nothing strange about this child, to charm them and lead them to their doom(He may not have been a beautiful child but oh, he was charismatic and charming). His own fae mother ate men, she once said that man was a very delicate taste, sweet almost. Unfortunately(or maybe fortunately), Coulson never developed that particular taste. He does occasionally bring her the finest lamb or suckling pig that he can, when he needs magical help(or when he's feeling lonely, after all Philip Coulson has been alive for a very long time longer than he cares to remember sometimes). And she pouts and whines before finally huffing as her child(her dear darling little boy so like his mother and yet not) looks on stoically, single brow raised in silent question waiting for her answer. And her answer is yes, always yes, for he is her child and the fae never abandon their children no matter their age. And she will always help.


	38. Bruce Banner

The supersoldier serum was never meant to work without Erskine present; Bruce never should have gotten any results at all. Or maybe he should have died from the radiation. But he did it; he changed. He had never believed in his grandmother's stories of magic and ancient gods, but here was proof that she was right. He may not have had the control over his Other that their family was supposed to, but his monster was just as much a creature of science as it was of magic, and that made all the difference.


	39. Bruce Banner

Despite having accomplished in part what he'd meant to Bruce knew somehow that he'd still failed. And when he'd left the United States(for somewhere, anywhere). He'd left behind Betty(Betty who was his heart, his love. Betty who'd loved him despite despite the Other. Betty who was kind and beautiful and so very intelligent. Betty who'd never thought, not even once about leaving him. Instead he left her. He hoped she'd wait but at the same time agonizingly wished she wouldn't.) and somehow he'd landed in India, and this wouldn't be the last time that he'd go there because there is a certain presence in the country, in India with her aromatic flowers, her bright and colorful clothing, the cheerful smiles on the young and elderly women as they work, happy despite the hardships of their lives, the noise of the merchants selling their wares and attempting to con tourists and the unwary into buying for more, of the newly returned fishermen seeking good prices for the day's catch against the fish mongers who would give them very little if allowed by the shrewd-eyed men. India with her powerful and ancient mysticism and her religions which have withstood invasion after invasion, faith after faith, those who would try to change her, those who sought to change her.


	40. Bruce Banner

It is at a temple for Lakshmi that he falls to his knees before a statue of the goddess and he recites the prayers and chants that he'd heard on the streets and in little side alleys along the loud and noisy food market and memorized by heart(Because God hasn't helped him and maybe-maybe she will). And he asks for hope hope for what he doesn't know, for courage to keep him on his feet to let him keep running, and for luck so that he can stay ahead of the Army, of anyone who would want to take him and use him for their own purposes. And he doesn't know how he escaped the General. Or how he was able to evade those SHIELD agents later in Sri Lanka. And how it continues to happen up until he agrees to go with the Agent whose hair is a deep deep red the color of freshly spilled blood. And still he promises to leave the first chance he gets, the moment SHIELD's business with him is done. And he knows with a certainty that he can and will escape them, that not even SHIELD's best trackers will be able to find him. A smiling four armed woman atop a coral pink lotus comes to his mind, briefly ever so briefly before he shakes her from his mind. And Bruce never forgets to leave a small offering and a word of thanks at her temple whenever he comes across one. And he thanks her for his Good Fortune. For the chance to start anew having found a family in the Avengers. For Betty, Betty who'd found him. She hadn't stopped looking. And that smiling woman comes back to mind and Bruce whispers thank you and her smile widens in acknowledgement and she nods before turning and fading into a golden pink light.


	41. Dr. Erskine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here are two updates for Friday and Saturday. A rather last minute family emergency and change of plans means that I'm going to likely be out of range tomorrow and my wifi is out until Saturday at the very least given that my dad accidentally murdered it and the cable with his lawn mower. If all goes well I'll be back Sunday. If not then Monday at the latest. ~Esme

The supersoldier serum first came to his attention through the prayers of the German people that HYDRA was experimenting on. The Second World War hadn't started yet, but Ezekiel had been around humanity enough to recognize when a war was brewing. He was one of Uriel's best infiltrators, able to play human better than any of his brothers. And Uriel saw that Zola would succeed, with the aid of Hell. The only thing tto do was to send in an angel to develop a better serum, one that mankind would never be able to achieve, so that they would always believe themselves failures. Unfortunately, in order to pass underneath the notice of the fiends who were helping HYDRA, Ezekiel had to become human, and so Dr. Erskine was born. Maybe becoming a German hadn't been the safest option, but it also gave him an opportunity to save some of them. He just hadn't counted on Schmidt finding him before the Allies did. Schmidt's dose of the serum was never going to work, not fully. Erskine took a vindictive pleasure in making Schmidt appear like the monster he truly was. It wasn't very angelic of him, but there was a reason he was better at playing human than any of his brothers.


	42. Dr. Erskine

When he met Steven G. Rogers in the New York City recruiting office, he knew that he had found his one and only candidate for the serum. Not only did the man actively fight for what was right, as fiercely as any avenging angel, but he also had some small amount of magic, not enough to become a wizard, or even a minor practitioner, but enough to keep him alive on the cold winter nights when his body betrayed him. The man didn't even know about his magic, but that was alright. His magic would interact with the serum, enhancing it beyond what it already was.


	43. Dr. Erskine

Ezekiel saw one of his brother's in the labratory that day, pretending to be HYDRA. The man wasn't really an assassin though; he was Ezekiel's extraction, taking him out of the mission before he was forced to make more supersoldiers. If it also had the added benefit of bringing HYDRA to Steven's attention, well. No one could say that Uriel didn't have plans within plans.


	44. Dr. Erskine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This kinda has an OC but still keeps up with Dr. Erskine/Ezekiel. Basically it's a continuation of his story.

Azrael was the one to greet him. The Archangel had sent one of his own subordinates to waylay the demons and HYDRA men seeking to catch. His brother stood tall and glorious. Death was beautiful with long golden hair and shining white skin, or at least the form he wore was. When asked about his human skin Azrael had only smiled before murmuring that it was for the comfort of the dead and dying not out of vanity that he wore such a lovely form. And certainly it was a comforting sight to Ezekiel as he was brought before the Angel of Death knowing that it wasn't yet his time.


	45. Bucky Barnes

Azrael had no fondness for the mortals who played with God's domain out of arrogance. And rather his temper had peaked when he began to realize that the discrepancies of the dead were not do to his own underlings failings but another. Azrael had noticed the loss of those who should have been his through the death of James Buchanan Barnes. Or rather the multiple deaths the man had suffered. One death could be avoided and had been but after his fall there had been a quick succession of more.


	46. Steve Rogers

And it was ultimately the reason that his brother stayed his hand when Steven crash landed into the ice. Twas the reason Azrael allowed the formation of SHIELD and the things it would create at HYDRA's command. Azrael who normally did not allow irregularities allowed the creation of Bruce Banner's Other.


	47. Dr. Erskine

Ezekiel knew all too well that the Angel of Death's anger was the reason for the formation of the Avengers. An angel's temper ran deep but an archangel's anger once earned could not be shaken off. That was the reason the Denarion's still hid, they had incurred the wrath of The Angel of Death once and their brother had not forgotten.


	48. Agent Melinda May

She had existed among humans for aeons, always guarding, always watching. It had been difficult, the first few centuries, watching them live and then die, often horribly. She was never assigned to those destined to live peacefully; Maiel guarded those who strived to change their world for the better. In those early years, her charges tended to be warriors. And they all died. So, Maiel learned to close herself off, to not feel anything for her charges. It never really worked, but she had a duty, and so she continued to watch over her charges. Even when her bosses sent her in to keep an eye on SHIELD she had a specific charge in Agent Coulson. The worst part about working with SHIELD was that she had a team, a group off people to care about rather than just one. We don't speak of Ward.


	49. Betty Ross

Betty doesn't like to talk about her time with the Fellowship of St. Giles. It's not that she wasn't proud of the work they did fighting the Red Court. It's that she sometimes liked the power she had as a half vampire. It had happened after Bruce left. She had heard rumors of him in Peru and gone to seek him out. Instead of him though, she had found the vampires. They had changed her, and not for the better. She was more vicious, more brutal, and more deadly. Sure, as a general's daughter she had learned how to defend herself, but the Fellowship had taught her to kill without mercy. Betty doesn't like to be reminded of that version of herself, ever since the Red Court was destroyed and she became human again. One day, she will seek out Bruce and tell him about her own demon, and maybe then she will forgive herself. Maybe.


	50. Happy Hogan

Happy doesn't like to talk about the Naagloshii which has haunted his family for generations. Family legend states that the Skinwalkers have hunted members of the Hogan family since the days of the Southwestern expansion. Happy's many times great grandfather a Ranger had stolen the spirit's meal and that spirit vowed to devour the descendants of the Ranger until the Sun was lost and the Moon's light was smothered. The daughter of a Navajo medicine man had been the spirit's intended meal. Great Grandpa Hogan married the young Navajo woman. And the curse and the Naagloshii have haunted the family for so long that no one remembers a time when they didn't have to look over each others shoulders, to fear strangers and friends alike and to worry if their children were safe going to school to the park or even to spend time with friends. Happy lost his older brother to the Naagloshii when he was 6, his brother was only 10.


	51. JARVIS

JARVIS was the first one to find the Paranet, but he told Sir about it immediately. Tony, of course, thought it was a great idea, and asked JARVIS to protect the Paranet from any who would seek to use it for nefarious purposes. The magic users who used the Paranet never knew about their silent protector, but that was okay. JARVIS would have done it even if Sir hadn't asked him to.


	52. Justin Hammer

Justin Hammer is the son of the Naagloshii and a Hogan Girl it stole away. A girl that the family prayed for but knew they would never see again. A girl whose bones the creature returned to the family. The Naagloshii has been playing a game with the Hogans for decades. It's stretching the game as things go. Letting the Hogan's breed(like rabbits, like prey) and create minor branches of the family which the creature begins to cull until the only ones left are the main branch Hogan's. Only occasionally does the spirit snatch one of the main branch children. He does so when they've forgotten or become complacent and when he's finished playing with the others.


	53. Peggy Carter

It was Peggy's idea to start a cafe. It was only meant to be a small one, almost a pub really. Intended for the Carter family to meet when in the United States on business. But it began to attract another sort of clientele. Sidhe, White Court Vampires, minor practitioner's of all backgrounds. And it would be her own little girl who would expand on the idea after her Wyldfae friends kept stopping by asking for honey and fruits. And the Erlking made his presence felt there in that small British styled cafe one day and Peggy's daughter only asked if he would like Beer, Mead or Tea.


	54. Tony Stark

Tony wasn't sure what to think of the practitioners calling themselves Ordo Lebes. Their minor practitioners, people with only a drop of magic in their veins(at least in comparison to Tony himself). He wants to scream at them sometimes, to scream and smack them, ask them what in the hell are you doing? What are you thinking? Are you even thinking? Why would you do this? You have a chance to escape this life. To leave magic behind and instead you band together gather others and drag each other along to protect someone that you've never met. You risk your lives to save an ungrateful magician, an ungrateful mother with a gift, who denies her gift out of fear of the unknown. He can't understand them sometimes but he's so very proud nonetheless. Proud of them, of their courage, their bravery and of their humanity. (This is why he doesn't say anything when money begins to disappear from his personal account, the one that not even Pepper knows about, even as it begins to appear in the Chicago bank account of Ordo Lebes under Warden Dresden's name.)


	55. Sharon Carter

Sharon's summer job as a kid was to work for her cousin's cafe; every girl in their family did unless they were in the direct inheritance line of the Archive. They learned discretion there, and they made contacts of all sorts of beings, human and other. The family cafe definitely held a legacy, and Sharon knew that her cousin wanted her to take over someday. But Sharon had grown up on Aunt Peggy's stories of Captain America, SHIELD, and her own exploits, as long as they weren't classified. Sharon grew up to become a spy, but SHIELD didn't teach her all that she knew. Aunt Peggy made sure of that.


	56. Bucky Barnes

The serum that Zola gave Bucky had an unintended side effect: it caused his magic to grow. At first, it was such a small difference that Bucky didn't even notice, after all, he never even knew he had magic in the first place. He knew that Zola had done something to him, but then, sometimes he wondered if Steve's rescue was just a dream. Before Azzano, he had been good, but afterwards he was almost inhumanely good. Part of that was the serum, but part of that was his growing magic, which was never expressed in his teens because it had been so weak. By the time Bucky fell from the train, his magic combined with his version of the serum insured that he survived, memories gone, sentenced to a living hell. The Red Room tried to attach a cybernetic arm to replace the one he had lost during the fall, but every attempt just sparked and died. Finally, they called in an expert. Bucky was never able to remember the man fully, but he remembered the man's shadow because it didn't match up with the man at all. Later, when he escaped from HYDRA and began recovering his memories, he would chalk it up to the brainwashing messing with his brain, but at the time he just accepted that the man didn't match his shadow. The arm that the expert gave him drew on his magic, animating the metal and giving it strength greater than any normal human. Having so much of his magic caught up in the arm was what allowed HYDRA to begin brainwashing him when he fell into their hands. They were never able to understand the arm, despite their focus on mythology, however the reaped the benefits it gave them time and time again. They wiped him after every mission.


	57. Audrey Nathan

Audrey Nathan is no ordinary woman and she is well aware of Philip Coulson's true origins and of his mortal profession. She is what the Welsh call Tylwyth Teg. Her current form has hair the color of bark. Eyes the color of rich loam and lips of bog-rosemary. Though once she was golden haired, had eyes the pale blue of the sweet bluebell, and her form long and tall. Now she is not quite so tall, not quite so fair but she still holds Philip Coulson's heart in her hands. It is still hers and she will not return it. Not even should the stars fade and the earth shatter. He traded it to her to escape his mother and the oath she swore to the Queen of Winter. Loosed one bond only to tie himself to another. In this modern day and age she can no longer steal children from their parents(well she could but she doesn't). Instead her home is still filled with the sweet cries and riotous laughter of young golden haired children stolen from across the ages. Children that she stole and tempted, found and saved, liberated. Children who will never grow up. Children who forget all of their unfairnesses. Children whose joys are innumerable. Children who are heartless. For they are young and gay and full of life(though their life has already ended). They are innocent in the truest sense of the word. And they are hers. Just as Coulson is.


	58. Sif

Thor is the one to introduce them. After the great Battle at Chichen Itza, during which the Red Court was vanquished and the Winter Knight, Warden Dresden, was slain, Thor led a band of einherjaren to Chicago to guard Baron Marcone along the the valkyrie Gard. Sif accompanied him because she was good friends with the valkyrie who went by Gard. While they were there, they ran into the Lady Murphy. The blood of kings ran through her veins, it was clear to see, and she and Sif became good friends and training partners. Sif often had to hold back because as an Asgardian she was much stronger than the Lady Karrin, but not as often as she would have expected. Sif finally found herself understanding why Thor was so enamoured of the mortals, even if the Warriors Three began questioning her sanity when she began visiting Midgard more and more often to see Karrin. And when her friend got seriously injured, well, Idunn had promised not to tell Odin about the missing apple, and no one else would notice.


	59. Karrin Murphy

Murphy often wondered when the hell had her life become so complicated. Was it when Harry Dresden came into the picture or was it when he left. He went and died and it felt like so much more was happening now that he was gone. But Marcone had his boys and she had the CPD and the Valkyries to help her keep the city somewhat stable. And ohh she was so angry when she found out about SHIELD. They existed and they hadn't bothered to help her and the Police Department deal with the supernatural.(At the time she didn't know that SHIELD wasn't exactly aware of what went bump in the middle of the day but Sharon Carter handed her a card which said simply Carter Cafe and had nothing else on the pretty vine covered card) Thor was the one to accidentally spill the beans about SHIELD. And some man named Coulson restricted the God of Thunder's access to pop-tarts.


	60. Maria Hill

When Maria Hill learned that Michael Carpenter was a Knight of the Cross, she was anything but surprised. Before Grey had taken her in, she had lived next to the Carpenters. Michael, a big fan of anything Captain America, had been something of a savior for the weaker children in the neighborhood, always standing up to bullies. She was still just an agent when she learned of his knighthood, but she stopped by his wedding to give her congratulations before she took off on another mission for SHIELD.


	61. Thor

While Sif was off galavanting with Lady Karrin, Thor took it upon himself to become acquainted with the people she chose to surround herself with. One person in particular caught his eye. There was more to Waldo Butters than met the eye. His bearing no longer resembled his distant nordic ancestors, and he looked nothing like his Asgardian relations, but Thor was well able to recognize one of his blood.


	62. Foggy Nelson

Butcher wasn't actually Foggy's mother's first choice of work; it was her backup plan if he wasn't chosen. Long before their last name had become Nelson, their family had served the Dark Ones. Foggy was anything but stupid; he knew that they were vampires, that they killed people, and that he wanted nothing to do with them. He also knew that he wasn't strong enough to take them down, but he could take down ordinary people. Oh, not with his fists, not as a vigilante, no. He would use his brains and the law as his tool. No, Foggy was never going to be a butcher or a vampire's pet.


	63. Maria Hill

Michael had thanked her for her wedding gift by naming her Godmother of his first child. And Charity had demanded that she drop by to meet the little girl they'd named after her. (She understood Barton really she did, she'd been Mols on the streets of Chicago rather than Maria and it had been as much for her defence as it had been for the people she interacted with. Not a circus child, a bit of a street rat but never anyone's fool Mols had been tough as nails. And Mols had been the girl that Michael met and he'd smiled and whispered that Maria was a much prettier name to shocked and wary teenage girl.) And she had dropped by though it had been Christmas time. And she'd brought the baby a small toy cat. Charity had taken one look at the bruises lining the side of her face and the cuts and scratches she'd tried to hide but failed and pursed her lips. Maria would later hide(more skillfully this time) her injuries but still Charity would shake her head and serve her large helpings of food remembering Mols thin skinny frame and determined to feed her right this time despite Maria's protests.


	64. Steve Rogers

Steve's first stop in Chicago was the Carpenter house, recommended by Agent Hill. Mr. Carpenter had greeted him with a smile and a gentlemanly hello. And Steve had smiled back seeing warm eyes and a caring tilt of the head as he was let in. Everything in the Carpenter house had been a breath of fresh air to him. None of the stresses and excesses of the 21st Century but all of the homeliness of a prior age. Michael had reined his inner fanboy once he'd seen the tense shoulders and gritted teeth of the man who'd become known as the American Icon. He'd seen the stress lines marring the young man's face and had treated him as he would any other young person in need of help and an understanding hand.


	65. Steve Rogers

Chicago had been a refreshing change from New York with it's familiar technological backwardness.(Chicago isn't too good with most technology not even Stark tech. Too much magic in the air. Power on the ground. The City crosses the Nation's ley lines just like Toronto. Not enough room for tech to operate and spread its' wings. There's also the ever present feeling that the City itself is skeptical of technology preferring the rum running to Arc Reactors.) The obvious presence of the Mob helped a lot to endear him to the city. Steve had very fond memories of the Irish mob from the 40s. Grandma had run a speakeasy in the basement of their much fought for home. Momma had never known but then she'd been working her health away at the factories chipping in at the mills for extra cash and volunteering her time for wads of money from the managers of the Radium Corporation's school factories.


	66. Nick Fury

Fury had been well aware of his deputy's connection to a Knight of the Cross; it was one of the reasons that he knew she wasn't Hydra. Those Knights tended to have staggeringly good instincts about whether or not someone was good, and if he knew anything about anything, he knew that Hydra was bad news. So, when Michael Carpenter was injured, if an anonymous donor happened to pay for his hospital bill and his physical therapy , well, someone should be compensating the Knights for their sacrifices, and it wasn't like Hydra was going to be using that money.


	67. Erik Selvig

Erik Selvig doesn't really approve of Jane's decision to keep on with SHIELD. But Jane does what Jane wants and if not even Darcy can stop her then who's Erik to try. He doesn't really care for Director Nick Fury, didn't care for Agent Coulson and wasn't particularly saddened by his death and doesn't enjoy the though that Jane is intentionally putting herself in danger for the funding that SHIELD can give her. But he does love her, she's the daughter he wished he had, the daughter he could have had if not for the accident.


	68. Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis

For a long time she was all he had, then Darcy came along. Darcy who shied away from all physical contact, who after Thor had left had pulled Jane away from her science and had watched Mean Girls, the Notebook and a variety of other chick flick films while binging on buckets of ice cream, Darcy who perked up every Bucky Barnes entered the room, Darcy who shared dirty jokes with Captain America and sang 40s music with the Captain gleefully belting out the particularly dirty lyrics of soldiers songs. And he's wary of the Winter Soldier of the harm he can do Darcy but Darcy isn't helpless, Erik knows more than she thinks and she's never been able to hide anything from him and he knows that she can take care of herself.


	69. Fandral

Fandral does not speak of the time he almost became one of the Hounds of the Leanansidhe. Ever. He still maintains that it was all Loki's fault, the tricky bastard.


	70. Loki

oki remains quiet during these conversations, remembering all to clearly the Leanansidhe and the words she whispered into his ear smiling a beautiful, bloodthirsty grin out of the corner of his eyes. Skin luminescent, eyes seeming to glitter with an unholy glee, teeth and lips stained a dull cracking red by the blood of her enemies and of the fools who had crossed her and her hair shimmering in the pale dying moonlight of those acursed lands that Thor had dragged him to in the name of adventure. Of glory and of fame immemorial. Dreaming of the great Valkyries of Valhalla and of the golden realms glittering spires and whose bronze domes outshone the beauty of Golden Asgard.


	71. Frigga

Frigga has always loved her sons. Though neither were hers. Born of the flesh of others. Bold(and reckless) Thor's mother is Jord, an Elder Goddess though Frigga is well aware of the woman's lineage. For Jord is a Jotunn. Golden haired Jord who's eyes and skin are reminiscent of the rich loam of Vanaheim rather than the cold frozen wastes of Jotunheim that is naturally her home. And sweet, darling Loki who's eyes are keen and mind sharp. Who's lips draw back in gentle tender smiles small enough to mistake for fleeting waking dreams. His mother Laufey Queen is dark haired and beautiful, tall as all Jotunn are. Her skin the color of shimmering sapphires and bold lapis one moment and the color of pale snow the next. Her dark eyes gleam cold and cruel even as her lips draw back in scornful laughter. Poisonous words fall often from her lips and crush the minds and spirits of those who would have her.


	72. Laufey

Laufey has always been mysterious. She appeared one day as Jotunheim began to lose her eternal war against Asgard and showed her favor by placing the Casket of Ancient Winters upon the tallest altar of the gleaming crystal spires of the Winter Palace. Later wars would see it moved to a temple especially built to accommodate the Casket and protect it. Laufey reemerging after a long absence vanished again not long after bearing Farbauti King a child. A runt whom she'd named Loki and placed in a far away temple.


	73. Laura Barton

Laura's life had been far more dangerous before she met Clint. When she had been a kid, the danger had been her mother's drunk, abusive boyfriends. After she had become a wizard, the danger had been the vampires. Listens-to-Wind, her mentor, was the best healer on the White Council, but he believed that some day she would surpass him, as her specialty was healing. She was completely awful at anything related to combat, so she was never promoted to Warden even during the worst parts of the war. Instead, she hung back and healed any of the survivors. She met Clint through Natasha, whim she had stumbled upon after an accidental wrong turn in the Nevernever dropped her off in Budapest. She had healed the spy, and Natasha had come to trust her enough to bring in her partner, Clint, for healing after a particularly bad mission. Theirs was a whirlwind romance, what with the vampires and his job, and within a year they were married.


	74. Laura Barton

After the vampire war was over, the spy twins and her children were the only ones she used her magic to heal, along with the occassional animal, until Clint brought home a young man riddled with bullet holes and barely clinging to life. His dark haired twin sister refused to leave his side, and so Laura met the Maximoffs. Clint of course explained their powers to her so that she could properly heal Pietro. Wanda's mind powers gave her a little concern; they sounded a little too much like mind control. Laura may not have been a Warden, but she knew one who lived close by. Therefore, she placed a call to one Harry Dresden and explained her concerns to him.


	75. Sharon Carter

Growing up Sharon Carter's life was filled with explosions and frenetic energy. Tony of course was to blame for the explosions he often drove Aunt Maria mad with fury over the shattered vases, scorched walls and mysteriously missing rugs and carpets that she'd need to replace. The energy came from all three Starks of course and it bled into the Carter children. Howard focused so much of his time and energy into the search for the Captain that he was often listless at home though rarely so in public. Aunt Maria could often be found humming aloud to some tune in her head and swaying about whatever room she was in, magic sparking at her fingertips. And Tony, Tony buzzed about the house from his room to his father's, from the lab to the living room to test some new invention. And Sharon followed him like a puppy until the day one of his newest rockets left burn marks across his mom's newest fine carpet but scorched Sharon's hair as well. Sharon got her revenge the next day.


	76. Peggy Carter's son

Peggy's eldest child, her only son, grew up in a world of magic and technology. Grew up and decided that he would join the White Council. Her son grew up with tales of Captain America and his father passed on the stories acquired over the war by the Howling Commandos of their journeys and adventures. And it was Peggy's son who later offered information on the Winter Soldier program out of kinship. Her son who gave a cursory admiring glance to Dresden before dismissing the man and returning his attention to the Captain. And he warned of the Red Courts actions, past and present, in Russia and the possibility of their involvement with a certain unnamed organization before taking his leave of them.


	77. Steve Rogers and Harry Dresden

A few weeks after the Maximoff twins got back from the Bartons' farm, a tall, scruffy guy carrying a staff and wearing a grey cloak appeared at the front entrance to the secret Avengers facility. Literally appeared; one second there was nothing and the next the guy was there. The SHIELD agents got twitchy, but surprisingly none of them even raised a gun at him. When Steve asked Nat, she just smirked and said that the guns would have jammed if they had pointed them at him, Apparently, he was an actual wizard.


	78. Steve Rogers and Harry Dresden

Now, Steve had seen some strange things, both back during WW2 (don't even get him started on the vampires in Hitler's army) and in the 21st century, starting with the alien invasion, so wizards being real wasn't all that shocking. That they had a police force/military that literally went around chopping peoples' heads off was. He really didn't appreciate the threat to one of his new team members. Natasha calmed him down though, explaining that Warden Dresden's visit was a warning so that Wanda would know not to mess with peoples' heads because even if what she did wasn't technically magic it was still close enough that some wizards wouldn't hesitate to decapitate her.


	79. Steve Rogers and Harry Dresden

So, when Dresden later told him that it was an honor to meet him and asked him for an autograph, for his apprentice of course, Steve was a little less reluctant to do so. And, if he just so happened to hire a private investigator from Chicago to help him with his search for his best friend, well, not even Natasha judged him.


End file.
